Canada

In this instant national bestseller, comedy superstar Mike Myers writes from the (true patriot) heart about his 53-year relationship with his beloved Canada.

Mike Myers is a world-renowned actor, director and writer, and the man behind some of the most memorable comic characters of our time. But as he says: "no description of me is truly complete without saying I'm a Canadian." He has often winked and nodded to Canada in his outrageously accomplished body of work, but now he turns the spotlight full-beam on his homeland. His hilarious and heartfelt new book is part memoir, part history and pure entertainment. It is Mike Myers' funny and thoughtful analysis of what makes Canada Canada, Canadians Canadians and what being Canadian has always meant to him. His relationship with his home and native land continues to deepen and grow, he says. In fact, American friends have actually accused him of enjoying being Canadian--and he's happy to plead guilty as charged. A true patriot who happens to be an expatriate, Myers is in a unique position to explore Canada from within and without. With this, his first book, Mike brings his love for Canada to the fore at a time when the country is once again looking ahead with hope and national pride. Canada is a wholly subjective account of Mike's Canadian experience. Mike writes, "Some might say, 'Why didn't you include this or that?' I say there are 35 million stories waiting to be told in this country, and my book is only one of them." This beautifully designed book is illustrated in colour (and not color) throughout, and its visual treasures include personal photographs and Canadiana from the author's own collection. Published in the lead-up to the 2017 sesquicentennial, this is Mike Myers' birthday gift to his fellow Canadians. Or as he puts it: "In 1967, Canada turned one hundred. Canadians all across the country made Centennial projects. This book is my Centennial Project. I'm handing it in a little late. . . . Sorry."

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This book “Canada” is really Mike Meyers’ long love letter to Canada for this country’s 150th anniversary. Reading every page and looking at every picture in this witty and entertaining tribute was a pleasure because he reminded me of so many Canadian realities I had forgotten about or taken for granted. My only complaint is this book isn't long enough. The honest stories are funny, sad, thrilling and inspiring. Stories about Mike Meyers’ Dad, Eric Myers, are especially moving - (page 52) "All right, how fast can we find this funny?" and "There's nothing so terrible that can't be laughed at." can be immediately incorporated into anyone's life at any age. Who can match such good advice as the story (pages 198-9) which ends with the statement, "You only fight to get out of a fight." Little surprises are in store for readers - from charming paintings of the Queen and Pierre Trudeau to respectful and private stories of the late great John Candy and meeting Gilda Radner. My favourite SNL story was Lorne Michael’s advice (page 207) "Never take a drink from someone you don't know." The story of meeting Louis Malle was brilliant. However, the story about Mike’s childhood memory of skiing v tobogganing made me sad (page 56) ("...skiing was for Canadians, tobogganing was for us immigrants.") It seems that Mike as a young man wasn’t aware that many other young Canadians (not recent immigrants) couldn’t afford to ski either. His humour, like his movies, has a kind quality (eg. Wayne is always kind to Garth). The best line in the book to me (page 266) is "I wanted to make the point that no one should ever confuse Canada's civility for weakness.". He’s right; it can be an advantage to be underestimated if you don't underestimate yourself. I wish I could thank Mike Meyers personally for defending Canada, recognizing First Nations, and articulating so well so many reasons to love this country. Many Canadians share Mike’s admiration for Pierre and Justin Trudeau and this is not a political book; it's a memoir. Thank you, Mike Meyers!

Oh, man. Involuntary trip to memory lane with distinctive Canadian events (PNE), TV shows ( King of Kensington Street & Mr. Dressup) street slang (Tickle trunk, you hoof him & Scarborough suitcase), items (pitcher to hold milk bag) & department stores (Eatons) I laughed at Canadian Tire's familiarity breed contempt nickname given franchise came to Vancouver in the 1980s. Well played Mike.
Average United States citizen would not know above words.
Second half, a memoir living in United states fearing losing his Canadian identity.
A lot of Canadian in-jokes & nods in his movies.

Loved this. Love, love, loved it! I'm not Canadian and I never paid attention to what "being Canadian" meant except I did notice an awful lot of recording artists claimed to have been born there (but now live here). But I really enjoyed Mike's writing -- pretty much like a conversation you might be having with him on a long flight from Europe. It was amusing, informative (Why didn't Canada break free from England during the Revolutionary War?), and easy. And every time I think about fleeing from the US and heading up North I will remember quite clearly Mike's terrifying descriptions of the COLD. P.S. Maybe a little too much sports chatter for me.

Mike Myer's Canada. What a trip to a different time and place. Like many Canadians, Myers and I share a lot in common: we grew up in virtually the same time and place. Scarborough and Sam the Record Man. The Red Rocket and Honest Ed's. Canadian Tire money and Harve'ys. Those were the days my friend. We had CHUM charts and the Centennial; Expo and mayor Jean Drapeau; we had stubbies, and, of course, we had PET. This book is probably not entirely what Myers had in mind: it's a blast from the past.

Mike Myer's nostalgic look back at his formative years living in Canada may be of interest to his fans but is not of much use to the general reader. His notion of Canadians always having a morbid outlook on life rings oddly and and his pronouncements on what life is like in Canada are out of date, doing a disservice to readers living in other countries. He has been out of the country too long to be an authority on the subject. His lavish praise for the Trudeaus -- father and son -- seems out of place. This book is an easy enough read but not a very good reference regarding life in Canada. I can't really recommend it.

I had never intended to read this book right through. I was only going to skim through it to see what grabbed my attention. However I started on page 1 and by the time I got a third of the way through I had to admit that I was reading it cover to cover and enjoying it far more than I ever expected.

I must confess, I love Mike Myers. I grew up with more Wayne Campbell than Disney. Having stated my obvious bias, I was skeptical about this book. I wasn't sure what to expect, and I don't generally enjoy biographies, however I believe Myers has crafted a memorable memoir that both tells his story, and the story of Canada in the last 50 years. I saw my grandparents, my parents, and myself in this book. While Myers comes from a distinctly English background, I believe his experiences and observations about Canada are still valuable to multicultural audience. Mike Myers touches on such unique and ubiquitous aspects of Canadian (and Torontonian) life, that reading feels like a session reminiscing with Mike, because so many stories feel like shared experiences. At the same time, Myers also creates the argument that Canada suffers from a lack of mission statement, and that our insecurity as a nation comes from an undeveloped identity. Throughout his memoir, Myers returns to his thesis to demonstrate how as he grew up in Canada, Canada itself was also growing up. The parallel coming of age stories work very well, and create a layered and meaningful read. Throughout the book, Myers has included photographs from his life and memories of Canada. Again, this adds to the sense of memory sharing.

I think this book was sponsored by the Liberal gov't. ... Mike Myers seems to have rose coloured glasses on and he hasn't been in this country for 33 years.. How would he know what or what not is good gov't here? Confusing... Good for nostalgia buffs but only from a Toronto point of view.

Well Mike Myers, your Canada is not my Canada. I'm not sure if it's the 15 year difference in age or growing up on the opposite side of the country but I didn't recognize a lot of it, except for maybe a few iconic TV shows (Mr Dressup is a classic). I certainly didn't recognize the Canadian accent parts, I'm not sure where the Vancouver way of speaking came from but I've never heard it.

This book was very much a effort in nostalgia, and that's great, life in Scarborough with English parents, it's a good story. Saying that Canada is this way or that way when you haven't lived here for 30 years.....well, I think you're out of touch. Every country evolves and I think Canada has, maybe not in the way they were hoping it would in the 70s but it works, and in a quiet, unassuming, conservative way, we've become proud of being Canadian, we don't apologize for it and while Bob and Doug are still funny, they're caricatures of what we were, not what we are.

I love that Mike Myers created an ode to Canada, I love that he's so proud to be Canadian, I think ending your piecemeal memoir of oddly incomplete anecdotes with an ode to the Prime Minister a bit odd. Still, I am proud of all the Canadians that make it big, I love the CBC and I love that he told everyone that Canadian Tire (btw, I'm not sure anyone calls it Crappy Tire anymore) money is our real money and that we have a Canadian Christmas in July but I think he should have stuck to a memoir and not assumed that Canada is still stuck in the 1980s he remembers so fondly.